The Boomer Consumer is dedicated to helping boomers get what they want in life through using consumer information, making effective choices, and sharing their own experiences.

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How boomers will transform growing older in America – Part 1

Thornhill, keynote speaker at a recent forum in Seattle on housing for older adults, told the audience while working in advertising for 20 years he focused on 18 to 49 year olds.

“If you were 50, you were dead,” he said. “You just didn’t exist. We could care less about you. If we cared about you at all, you were part of this group called seniors, and we wanted to sell you Geritol and Depends.”

The Boomer Project conducts market research, advises clients, offers training and workshops, and provides information through blogs and newsletters about boomers. The project wants “to help people get smarter about boomers today,” Thornhill said.

The Boomer Project looks at generational dynamics and trends to predict what the future may hold.

On housing, the need for nursing home beds will double as boomers age. One in three adults alive today is a baby boomer. “It should be obvious to everybody that they’re coming,” he said. In just 20 years, boomers, now 44 to 62, will be 20 years older, and America will have a different composition.

By 2028, 30 million Americans will be age 75 to 95, nearly double the 18 million of today.

The Boomer Project studies psychology, sociology, and anthropology to determine what boomers are thinking, where boomers are in their lives, and what makes them a unique generation.

Thornhill said boomers experience four stages or seasons in which they focus on:

A 56-year-old boomer will buy a BMW for himself, but he could care less what others think, unlike the 20 year old who would buy the car to show off, he said to illustrate the stages.

Boomers have transformed industries since they burst on the scene. Gerber baby food, fast food, Japanese and German cars, exercise clothes and shoes, and minivans were created for them. As boomers grow older, they’ll changed health care, real estate, financial institutions, fitness, and tourism.

Boomers feel 10 to 15 years younger than they are, Thornhill said. Older boomers think of themselves as being in the first half of middle age. “They don’t think 62 is old.”

Boomer parents usually married one time, had children early, lived in one place, worked for one company, and retired after 40 years.

Boomers are “all over the map,” Thornhill said. They could be experiencing the empty nest, parenting young children, starting new careers, divorcing, or retiring.

“It’s a different time, a different generation,” he said.

Boomers, when they were growing up, had experiences that made them a unique and interesting generation. The experiences include: TV, prosperity, the cold war, political assassinations, Watergate, rock ‘n roll, suburbia, women’s liberation, civil rights, and Vietnam.

Boomer generational values, which came about because of these defining events, are entitlement, control, personal gratification, work ethic, and optimism, Thornhill said.

After World War II, boomer parents moved to the suburbs and began filling their houses with consumer goods. Boomers thought, “This consumption stuff is cool,” and they became known for their accumulation of things.

Boomers embraced the work ethic, and worked long hours in their jobs to get ahead. “What we do defines who we are,” he said.

Boomers are:

Driven as a generation.

Transformational in that they change things.

Self-centered, not as in self-absorbed, but as in “What’s in it for me?”

Thornhill thinks boomer self-centeredness is rooted in psychological battles around the dinner table where four siblings had to look out for themselves. The next generation had only two children, so there wasn’t as much competition.

In a national survey, boomers said “over the hill” was age 75. Boomers, rather than talking about a specific age said a lot of words about “what’s next.”

In addition to discussing who boomers are and their attitudes about aging, Thornhill spoke about how boomers will live as they grow older. My next post, “How Boomers Will Transform Growing Older in America – Part 2,” will report on trends for boomer housing and living.

Thronhill is president of the Boomer Project and co-author of “Boomer Consumer: Ten New Rules for Marketing to America’s Largest, Wealthiest, and Most Influential Group.”

AIA Seattle and AARP sponsored the discussion on housing for older adults called “Pig in the Python: Design for Aging Forum.”

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..